Where to open a group blog for a non-fiction writing group?

June 19, 2006 7:06 AM

I'm organizing a non-fiction writing group and I wanted to use a group blog to publish our pieces. Where should I open the blog?

Requirements:
• free
• supports multi-users (group blog)
• simple to use for posters
• is designable
• has admin and non-admin users (so not every user can play around with the design)
• blog stuff: comments & email alerts on them, rss, picture upload, draft and publish modes, private and public would be convenient too
• no ads Any good host suggestions?

posted by mirileh to computers & internet (12 comments total)

DreamHost has one click installation of WordPress blogging software. I'm pretty sure WordPress supports all of those features.
posted by ChazB at 7:20 AM on June 19, 2006

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posted by ChazB at 7:56 AM on June 19, 2006

(I don't think this meets the "free" requirement.. I don't think there is a free option for what he wants...)
posted by ajpresto at 8:06 AM on June 19, 2006

You get what you pay for. To do it right host with 1&1 Internet. They have a hosting plan for $2.99/mon. that gives you: 5 GB web space, 500 e-mail accounts, 250 GB monthly transfer volume, 10 MySQL databases, FTP access, and 1 FREE domain name. That will cost you $35.88 per year. Setup takes less than 24 hours.

For the software go with WordPress. Here are all of it's features. As you can see it seems to meet each of your requirements. Once you have it installed check out the WordPress Theme Viewer which has 500+ FREE themes.

If the hosting it beyond your budget I here that FreeHostia has an ad-free package that includes FTP, PHP, & MySQL.
posted by honorguy7 at 8:13 AM on June 19, 2006

Livejournal for all its faults, pretty much fits all your requirements.

If you want livejournal, but only 18+, then try journalfen.net. It's a livejournal clone on a 18+ only server, and it's for journals fans of movies, television, music and other forms of media entertainment.

Creation at journalfen is turned off, but if you contact the admins, they can set something up for you.
posted by FunkyHelix at 8:27 AM on June 19, 2006

we use 21publish.com for our department (district art teachers). It has some issues but has lots of features that you are looking for with only one small banner ad on a page.
posted by nimsey lou at 8:48 AM on June 19, 2006

The only problem with using word press yourself is comment spam. I might go with blogger or a community at lj just because there are spam filters built in.
posted by frecklefaerie at 9:06 AM on June 19, 2006

If you want a place to host your blog I could host it up for you, As for installing wordpress, I could do that, too if you ask nicely :), just send me an email and I'd be happy to help.
posted by CXImran at 10:08 AM on June 19, 2006

Another recommendation of Livejournal: it has what you're looking for.
posted by Melinika at 10:40 AM on June 19, 2006

thanks for all the suggestions! i'll get to work checking them out (forgot to mention i also have the headache of making sure the blog can handle a foreign characterset).
posted by mirileh at 11:30 AM on June 19, 2006

Don't go with 1&1, especially if you want something "out of the ordinary" like a foreign character set.
posted by ceri richard at 12:53 PM on June 19, 2006

I've had good luck with a WordPress-based free blog host called Blogsome. Not sure about the foreign charset, but they do live in Ireland. That one thing has been the only downside to hosting there, since their maintenance downtimes sometimes cross with my prime "business hours".
posted by quacky at 1:24 PM on June 19, 2006